Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal. Then the name of the forest was changed and Mirkwood it was called, for the nightshade lay deep there, and few dared to pass through, save only in the north where Thranduil's people still held the evil at bay.

Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea?”

Well, maybe I don't feel *THAT* bad. I mean, it is DAMN full of names and genealogies and it's probably a bit worse than having to slog through the Iliad for all that.

Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only so long as it too should last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.” The closing chapters also talks about Numenor and the rise and fall of the that great island nation and how this society led to the line of kings of whom Aragorn was one. The book also includes several shorter works: the Ainulindalë, a myth of the Creation, and the Valaquenta, in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings. The first part, of Eru Iluvatar (God) is clearly inspired by the Christian Old Testament. The music of the Ainur (angels) has one Ainur who thought his voice was better than the rest – Melkor (Satan) and so Eru made the music into the world and fifteen Ainur came to reside in the world, including the troublemaker.Oh woe-begotten spirit, fall now into dark oblivion, and forget for a while the dreadful doom of life."

Other well-known names of "Lord of the Rings", such as "Elrond" and "Galadriel" are also heroes of part of a short story in this book. Then of course as time draws closer to the Third Age, learning about Aragorn's ancestors was a real treat. Although working out that he was kiiiiinda related to Elrond made things a bit weird, if you follow me. Tolkien fue un genial filólogo y escritor. Pero también fue un humanista y filosofo de primera. Todo esto desemboco en que su romanticismo innato se contrapusiera a la dureza del mundo en el que le toco vivir, del cual no podía escapar. Esta lucha interna se dió de la mano con su gran capacidad creadora para crear uno de los mundos y legados fantásticos y ficticios más hermosos y mejor construidos de toda la historia. Un mundo que a día de hoy sorprende, sobrecoge y enamora a partes iguales a todos sus lectores. Incluso aquellos que ya lo conocen de antes no pueden dejar de enamorarse de la Tierra Media cada vez que vuelven a Tolkien. Ahora tengo muchas ganas de seguir con este autor, especialmente de leer los libros a mayores sobre (como no) “Los hijos de Húrin “y “Beren y Lúthien”. And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters. For the first time ever, a very special edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, illustrated throughout in colour by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and with the complete text.I will probably do it that way, just as I like to read my sci-fi and fantasy extra, outsourced exposition explanations about characters, chronological timelines, maps, fandom, etc., to get the flow better started. You also probably shouldn't read this if you didn't like either of the aforementioned books. You need to care for Middle-earth and its history to properly enjoy and appreciate this one. The Silmarilli were three perfect jewels, fashioned by Fëanor, most gifted of the Elves, and within them was imprisoned the last Light of the Two Trees of Valinor. But the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, stole the jewels and set them within his iron crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight. As the light upon the leaves of trees, as the voice of clear waters, as the stars above the mists of the world, such was her glory and her loveliness; and in her face was a shining light. Unique to this edition are two poster-size, fold-out maps revealing all the detail of Beleriand as the tales grew, an illustrated booklet featuring 'A Brief Account of The Silmarillion and its Making' by Christopher Tolkien, and a printed art card reproducing 'Taniquetil'.

I reread this wonderful book in anticipation of the upcoming Prime Video series. Still as good as ever. Now, I hope that some movie studio will adapt this one day (in a series of 10 movies or so that would be needed to fit all the story). Of the Rings of Power and The Third Age (basically a summary of what happened in The Hobbit, LOTR and a bit before that)The events of The Silmarillionhave a power and a symbolism all of their own, while also affording readers a deeper understanding of the later adventures of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. At the time of Tolkien’s death, in 1973, The Silmarillionremained unpublished. Tolkien’s son Christopher took on the momentous task of preparing a text from the masses of material to hand, with the first edition appearing in 1977. From the very beginning, one of the Ainur has evil intentions, and Melkor (aka Morgoth) swiftly becomes the Big Bad who lurks throughout this entire history, darkening all that the others create. His presence sows the seed of good vs evil, and suddenly this fancy new world is marred into something tragically more recognisable and honestly far more interesting. I won’t be reviewing each story in this book, there are way too many of them and I genuinely think a lot of Tolkienist can do a much better job in explaining the greatness of this book. Instead, I’ll say this. The First Age of Middle-Earth makes the event of the Third Age (events in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) looks like a normal skirmish. There were so many incredible and epic battle waged; tons of tragedy and loss; unmeasurable evil of Morgoth that makes Sauron looks like a brat. Out of all the stories included in this book, there were two that stands out the most to me. One is obviously the story of Turin Turambar that has already been told in full details on The Children of Hurin. I have done a full review on this story but to summarize it, I absolutely loved it and I have no doubt it will be even better upon a reread one day. If you're expecting something like The Hobbit (or even LotR), this will be a surprise - but an enriching one, I hope. Silmarillion tells the tale of the making of the world by Eru, the God of Middle-Earth and all that followed through the first two ages of creation, up until the events described in The Hobbit and LOTR. Christopher Tolkien did a great job of connecting his father’s writings on the subject, so we have a nice and chronological story. But it is not a novel exactly, for it covers countless years.